Joyce Weitzberg, a 62-year-old retired nurse and owner of the now-closed Nutritional Concepts PRC, plans to be one of the collective owners who complains to the City Council Tuesday night about their part in getting them shut down.

Kandice Hawes, 30, director of Orange County NORML, speaks to the Costa Mesa City Council her outrage at the shutting down of the medical marijuana collectives in Costa Mesa.

Marla James, a representative with Americans for Safe Access maneuvers her wheelchair back after speaking before the Costa Mesa City Council how much medical marijuana has helped her various health conditions.

Costa Mesa city council member Eric Bever listens to residents who support medical marijuana dispensaries express.

The Costa Mesa City Council prepares to hear public comments about the medical marijuana dispensaries that closed down recently.

Kandice Hawes, 30, director of Orange County NORML, holds up a sign before the start of the Costa Mesa City Council meeting on Tuesday night. Costa Mesa police officers informed everyone attending the council meeting that signs were not allowed in council chambers.

Alicia Renee Hamilton, 29, of Rancho Santa Margarita, tells the Costa Mesa City Council how much medical marijuana has improved her quality of life by alleviating the symptoms of a host of medical problems.

COSTA MESA – Months before federal authorities shut down dozens of medical marijuana facilities, the city asked them for help.

Tangled in a web of lawsuits with several dispensaries, the City Council and the city attorney turned to the United States Attorney’s office, requesting federal assistance in shutting down 27 known active medical marijuana collectives — which are illegal under city ordinance — according to an Oct. 26 letter obtained by the Register.

“We believe that by working together with the U.S. Department of Justice we can eradicate these illegal businesses from our city,” the letter, signed by City Attorney Tom Duarte and sent on behalf of the council, stated. “In our opinion, twenty-seven dispensaries in a 16.8 square mile area constitute mass cultivation and distribution of marijuana.”

Owners of the now-closed medical marijuana collectives in Costa Mesa have expressed frustration with the City Council for involving federal authorities. About a dozen former collective owners and cannabis patients protested before Tuesday’s City Council meeting and addressed the council in the meeting’s public comment section.

Among the speakers was Joyce Weitzberg, a 62-year-old retired nurse and owner of Nutritional Concepts Pain Releaf Center, who said not all medical marijuana stores are created equal.

In an impassioned speech, Weitzberg asked the City Council to adopt an emergency ordinance that would allow two or three collectives to re-open so local patients could get their medicine.

Weitzberg opened her own non-profit collective two years ago after becoming a patient of medical marijuana — a last resort to manage the pain of her bone and lung diseases, she said in an interview early this week. She played by all the rules and jumped through all the hoops, she said.

“We’ve done it 100 percent right and I’m guilty by association. There’s no due process,” Weitzberg said.

“Cannabis Community,” hosted by Robert Martinez, a veteran U.S. Army medic and president of medical marijuana collective Newport Mesa Patients Association, recently broadcast a show from Mayor Gary Monahan’s bar, Skosh Monahan’s.

During the Jan. 15 show, Monahan joined a number of medical cannabis proponents in support of regulating the businesses, which are forbidden by federal law but allowed by California.

“It’s like the wild, wild west out there,” he said on the show. “Everybody’s doing whatever they want to do. You’ve got some really good dispensaries; you’ve got some really bad dispensaries that are just out for a quick buck. … There’re a lot of good ones that we want to support.”

Cannabis collective owners and activists questioned the timing of the appearance, but Monahan said he did not know when federal authorities would come.

“I’m not happy with what happened,” Monahan said in an interview. “I do believe that the dispensaries are what the future is going to hold and I would like to support them in their efforts to get the businesses regulated to some type of standard so they can operate.”

Councilwoman Wendy Leece said she supports the crackdown, adding the city had too many medical marijuana facilities.

“I believe the number of clinics in Costa Mesa has been harmful and the number has been out of control,” she said.

The announcement came on the heels of the city of Lake Forest‘s public call for federal assistance in shutting down a number of medical marijuana dispensaries in May 2011.

Costa Mesa’s letter noted the high cost of fighting dispensaries in court and rising complaints from residents and business owners, who were especially concerned that the dispensaries were deterring potential customers.

The city has spent $457,612 in legal cases involving marijuana dispensaries as of Jan. 31, city spokesman Bill Lobdell said.

Three dispensaries have sued the city in state court over its ordinance banning dispensaries since April 2010. Only one from Newport-Mesa Collective and Tri-County Patients Association is still ongoing, after one was dismissed and the city won the other in trial.

Costa Mesa filed a public nuisance lawsuit against the operator of 440 Fair Drive in April of 2010, where up to nine dispensaries and seven massage parlors were operating.

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